ANOTHER OPINION: Why Our Schools Don’t Work

BY JUSTIN NELSON/

To Ms. Denise Clay:

What needed to be mentioned in your column last week (“Out & About”, May 31) is that today’s generation is filled with everything that is wrong.

Many years ago, yet not that far back, everything that was once wrong is now right. Gambling, prostitution, these were “harmless vices” that took place but now, both of these are highly accepted with today’s society. Our government leaders are openly promoting these vices as “acceptable”.

With regards to Black people, in the 1960s, unity was the word. But now it’s divide and conquer, with broken-down homes, single-parent families and plenty of children having children themselves! The unity is no longer present in the Black community. Also, television and our stupid Hollywood/reality TV shows have their place with regards to destroying the moral fabric of our society, regardless of race. Before, pot-smoking and illicit drugs were very illegal, yet today, both are mainstream, politicians themselves partaking!

The visual images being displayed to these impressionable youths, none of them having any real semblance of spiritual values, leads them to continue to run wild. Many of our youths, regardless of race, continue being caught up like fish with hot bait!

When our leaders create laws that are to “benefit” society, what they fail to understand is these laws will also cause harm to society!

Higher taxes don’t help the society, yet raising taxes is passed off as if it is to be the answer to all things, yet only benefitting those “in the know”. Our students need real, 2012 thinking teachers, yet teachers must have that “street cred” persona in order to begin to first relate to the students of today. These students are still being held under the mandate of the 1980s.

Keeping students in school with longer hours per day … that is played out. Today’s student can’t sit still five minutes; so try, especially after lunch, to keep students involved for seven hours; it’s close to impossible, given iPods and all things internet! What is needed: 2012-thinking teachers who are not so big on “rules” but more concerned with “morals and standards”, being prime examples that reflect real life.

Also, the schools of today need to reflect the real world in general, especially in regards to what awaits after high school. Promoting high-school graduation is required, yes, but students of today can also see beyond high school. With no suitable jobs, just minimum wage/dead-end positions, the grass doesn’t look too green these days.

There is no real motivation, due to the disconnect that is now taking place between teachers/parents and the students/children to be educated. Our standards have also gone down in terms of basic educational requirements. Many of these students can’t read sufficiently, the majority simply unable to read at all! Prisons continue to be kept filled to maximum based on these inmates’ (once students themselves) being “passed over/along”, now deemed unfit for society. This is the standard trend.

With our Mayor of Philadelphia pushing for that $94 million overhaul attempt to demolish public education, once it is privatized, only those “privileged”, that meaning white students, will be the majority. It’s high time to just call out what is, Ms. Clay. Our current leaders in City Hall, from the Mayor, City Council, State Reps, etc., are all involved, no longer waiting for Black folks to get it together! I don’t blame them. Today, opportunities still exist, but they are becoming very distant as the “American Dream” is now a nightmare for our youth, regardless of race. White kids have it tough, too, especially those who are also in public schools.

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